I bottled an IPA over a month ago. I had the bottles in my basement for the first 2 weeks, around 68 degrees. Not much carbonation, but still pretty green. So I moved them upstairs to a closet at over 70 degrees. They've been there for about 3 weeks now. I had one last night and still very low carbonation!

I had a beer from my second batch this week that was stored in the same closet for only 2 weeks, and that seems to be carbing up nicely. I used the same ratio of priming sugar for both batches! At this point, are these first bottles ever gonna carb, or is there anything else I can do? They would be so good if they just had some carbonation!

If your IPA was a big beer then it's going to take a good while longer to get really carb'd. I'd keep them somewhere where it's about 72ish for another 2 weeks and try again. You could also try letting one or two age in your chill chest for a couple of weeks and see what you get compared to the others.

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Poor planning on your part doesn't necessitate an emergency on mine.

If there is no carbonation in any of the bottles, no 'pfft' when you open one, get some caps sanitized and some carbonation tablets from the brew store. Pop open each bottle, drop in the recommended number of tabs and recap.

If this fails, you some how killed the yeast and bottle conditioning with out yeast is impossible.

If there is no carbonation in any of the bottles, no 'pfft' when you open one, get some caps sanitized and some carbonation tablets from the brew store. Pop open each bottle, drop in the recommended number of tabs and recap.

If this fails, you some how killed the yeast and bottle conditioning with out yeast is impossible.

There is a little more carbonation than after 2 weeks, but not much. There's a small 'pfft' when I open them. I might give it another week or 2 at above 70 degrees and try the tablets if still no carb.

If there is no carbonation in any of the bottles, no 'pfft' when you open one, get some caps sanitized and some carbonation tablets from the brew store. Pop open each bottle, drop in the recommended number of tabs and recap.

If this fails, you some how killed the yeast and bottle conditioning with out yeast is impossible.

Don't do this for at least 3 more weeks...Really some beers take time. You say "close" to 70, is that close above or close below 70? If it is close below, that may seem like nothing to you, but it IS a big deal to the yeasties.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

ANd even if they are carbed the flavor might still be off...that's called bottle conditioning.

ALL beers will reach their level of carbonation eventually. In fact, it's possible (and proven by running the numbers in beersmith) to NOT add priming sugar and get minimal carbonation of a few volumes in time (in old brewing british brewing books they didn't add sugar to some ordinary bitters, and milds and relied on time and temp to do the work naturally. in fact if you run the recipes from the books in beersmith many of them give you NEGATIVE sugar amount to reach the lowest volume of co2 for the style range-and that NO SUGAR would often get you either mid carbing range or the highest volume of co2 depending ont he recipe.)

If you added the amount of sugar that came with your kit, then that is the correct amount of sugar....most beers carb at around 2-2.5 volumes of co2, and for most beers that is 4.5-5 ounces of sugar...that is plenty.

Just make sure they are at 70 degrees and don't worry about taste or carbonation until it has been AT LEAST 3 weeks at 70....I never even concern myself til 8 weeks......

Give it some more time....

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Revvy, you say it's taken up to 3 months for some to fully carbonate in the bottle. Isn't there some drawback to letting beer sit in a bottle for so long? I thought fresh was better when it came to beer? How long can I leave my beer in a bottle? I have a Russian Imperial Stout I want to make, but not drink until the winter. I've been holding off making it because I thought leaving it for 4 months in a bottle was not a good idea.